It’s not easy being green... (Pt 2)

At the end of my last article, we’d just left Handsome Bob at the Astartes Beauty and Recuperation Day Spa to be immersed in Dettol as a means of determining how successful it is when stripping plastic miniatures.  After leaving him immersed for 12 hours, I came back to see how the stripping process was going.  Much to my delight, the top layer of paint had lifted, but remained attached to the miniature, making him look like he’d gained another 200 odd kilos (being that a Space Marine weighs around half a tonne, he’s looking a little tubby).  Pulling him out of the solution, I began to scrub him using the same brush I use for the Simple Green.  The first scrubbing succeeded in removing the top layer of paint, but not the undercoat; which caused my brush to turn black and create a goupy pseudo paint coating that was somewhat sticky and resistant to water.  Scratch one cheap-ass toothbrush. 

As an aside here, I’d like to say that if you’re looking into stripping any miniatures at all, toothbrushes are one of the best ways of scrubbing the paint off the models.  Here in Australia, any of the Cheap Stores like Crazy Clarkes, Wayne’s World etc will sell packs of multiple toothbrushes for under $5.  These are perfect for the job and they’re 100% disposable.  I got a pack of 9 or so brushes for $3 which should easily last me until I finished stripping the mini’s I have at hand.

Here’s my boy again after his second trip into the Dettol.  It seems as though the chemical eats through the glue I was using at the time (either really old superglue or white glue, I can’t rightly remember) and has separated Bob from his ride.  This is great for me as it allows me to get in nice and close with the brush and scrub off all the extra paint around the backs of his legs and inner thigh (if Handsome Bob is really lucky, he might get a happy ending out of this). 

After the second run over with a brush, the results aren't much better.  There’s still a great deal of black undercoat still on the model and it feels very tacky, as if the spray paint was still wet.  I've thrown both the bike and Handsome Bob into a batch of Simple Green to see if I can’t get the last of it off, though I’m skeptical that it will make a difference. 

Here he is, in all his stripped glory.  It turns out that the Simple Green didn't much make a difference with the undercoat, though it was able to remove that tacky feeling which is a bit of a bonus.  Overall, I would say that the use of Dettol to strip plastic models was successful, especially if you can’t buy Simple Green in your local area.  You can leave the models in the Dettol for days without any ill-effects and so long as you don’t mind the goupyness and the smell, it is quite effective as a stripping technique.

With Handsome Bob now stripped, I think I’ll send the rest of his posse into the drink as well.  This will allow me to paint up a unit of Swiftclaw Bikers which I believe have potential in a Space Wolf List.  If nothing else, it’ll give me an excuse to build a new Wolf Lord riding a Space Marine Bike.  Everyone loves a T5 Wolf Lord right?  My WIP pic for this article is a Dreadnought Arm I've been working on for some time now.  With the Assault Cannon arm done, I feel it’s only fair that I get his other arm done too so my Dread won’t feel inadequate when he makes it to the Table.  He’s currently standing proudly on my hobby desk, his assault cannon trained on me as a means of ‘encouraging’ me to work faster.  I dearly hope that once his arm is done, he’ll stomp off and smash some Xenos or something in celebration rather than demand I paint his chassis as I still have no idea how I’m going to paint him...

Catch you all later

Trev